Iowa’s reps in D.C. running on this platform in 2026

If Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks all stand for election in 2026, here is the platform they are running on:

• The president gets to break the law and ignore court orders.

• The president gets to withhold congressionally-authorized funding from programs and agencies he doesn’t like (oops, repeating myself).

• Federal agencies will be led by people who are some combination of unqualified, disqualified by past actions, financially conflicted, and contemptuous of the agency’s mission.

• Unelected Elon Musk gets to hollow out the federal civil service so Trump can install cronies throughout the bureaucracy.

• The Justice Department will stop holding politicians to account for corruption and focus instead on using the FBI to intimidate and harass anyone the president doesn’t like.

• On the international stage, the United States will insult and bully its longtime allies and cozy up to the world’s despots.

I did not have to read a single position paper to discover this platform, but simply listened to the deafening silence from our members of Congress in the face of Donald Trump’s assault on the institutions of American democracy, accountability and transparency.

Oh, one more plank I almost overlooked:

• The oath members of Congress take to uphold and defend the Constitution means nothing.

Derek Maurer

Iowa City